Vanessa C.M. Englert, PhD scholar, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
There’s so much to learn from Āyurveda, maybe “significance of principles and qualities” is not the first thing that comes to mind. And it surely isn’t the only thing that I am grateful to carry away from the 15-day course in Āyurveda by Dr. Alaknanda Puri at Yoganga Santosh Puri Ashram. But it is this insight that I find so very relevant in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) times.
How Āyurveda thinks
In the class, next to applied theory sessions, we joined in parayana of the first chapter of the Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya . The practice of reciting this scripture and then learning its meaning clearly gave access to what I like to call one of the internal logics – or ways to think – of Āyurveda: it speaks about characteristics and reactions, about combinations and consequences, of context and current state vs. your nature. In short, Āyurveda seems to be all about qualities and principles! Where other systems of medicine provide linear prescriptions to an ailment regardless of e.g. personal state or environmental context, Āyurveda deals with this informational complexity by looking at things through principles and qualities. By giving fundamental ‘operating assumptions’ and distinguishable features of all that is life, the scripture manages to maintain the validity of its guidance independently of context, while concurrently considering the individual situation of a patient. As an example: Sūtra 7, Chapter 1 of the Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdayam speaks about which doṣa dominates which temporal space:
vayo ‘ho rātribhuktānāṃ te ‘ntamadhyādigāḥ kramāt
Age, day, night, digestion. Their beginning is kapha, middle is pitta, end is vata.
Does it matter where I live or in which state my health is for this to remain true? No.
Does it matter where I live and what doṣas are currently (dis-)balanced to find proper measurements? Yes.
So, thinking in principles and qualities allows for a universal guidance while considering individual circumstances.
The topicality of thinking in principles and qualities
I believe that in VUCA times the guidance given needs to be adaptable and remain true in many contexts. Looking at this from a management perspective, we too need to consider individual contexts for solutions but don’t need (nor have the time) to build a solution from scratch every time we encounter a challenge. Working with principles and qualities provides what creates flow: a direction, stability and room to move and react. Being able to flow allows organizations to be nimble and re-invent themselves when needed.
A simple transfer-experiment into the world of management
Due to the context-adaptability of Āyurveda principles, their application is bountiful.
Why not look at the people working on a project as the living organisms that they are and apply the above-mentioned principle to support them in their human experience? Let’s imagine you are facilitating a team in a project, one could consider:
In the beginning, kapha is present. With kapha’s qualities of heaviness and stability, there might be some lethargy about joining the project. An energetic kick-off or 1:1 conversations may be helpful to get people from their stable previous position into motion and excited about the task.
In the middle, pitta predominates. In the project’s main productivity phase, the chemical reaction or creation of value is happening. People are most engaged and social, as they have found their place. Now, the interest or ‘fire’ that was ignited in the kapha-dominant starting phase needs a direction – a vision or roadmap – and fuel to continue, which could be a conducive work environment and resources, feedback or autonomy or whatever you think fuelssavi sarin the team and individual members. Also, an eye needs to be kept on kapha qualities to prevent people from ‘over-heating’ or burning out.
At the end, vata is present, meaning the attention is ‘drying up’, and people feel ready to move on. Here, we could provide some grounding by helping to tie loose ends and facilitating adjourning activities amongst team members.
Needless to say, this little thought experiment is much simplified. All doṣas as well as the individual state of the people in front of you need to be considered when letting Āyurveda inform your actions.
Āyurveda can teach us so much about being in this life; this time, for me, it was about the significance of thinking in principles and qualities.
May we continue to learn from Āyurveda as a science of life and give thanks to all (inner) teachers that have received and shared its knowledge before us.
yo ‘pūrvavaidyāya namo ‘stu tasmai
I bow to the physician who has no one behind him.
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